1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods, apparatus, and systems for conducting games of chance and, in particular, methods, apparatus, and systems involving gaming machines that may be linked together for quasi-competitive play in a bonus event. Additionally, the invention relates to gaming methods that implement quasi-competition elements in a regulated gaming environment. The invention further relates to methods for increasing and maintaining player interest in gaming machines so as to promote prolonged play and improved player loyalty. In one exemplary embodiment, the present invention comprises a plurality of networked gaming devices for playing a cooperative and/or competitive participation bonus game.
2. State of the Art
Gaming machines have long been a significant feature of the gaming industry. The most basic form of gaming machine is a mechanical device of spinning reels, commonly known as a slot machine. The player wagers an amount and invokes the reels to spin. The reels stop on random positions. If predetermined symbols align on a pay line when the reels stop, then the player is awarded an amount that is inversely proportional to the probability of the alignment of such symbols on the pay line. Alignments of symbols that are relatively less probable to occur correlate with awards that are comparatively larger than awards for alignments of symbols that are relatively more probable to occur.
An important development in the gaming industry has been the implementation of electronic versions of conventional wagering games. Electronic versions of conventional wagering games, e.g., slot machines, poker, blackjack, keno, lotto, and bingo, are now widespread and account for a significant proportion of gaming revenues. It is thought that some players, particularly novices, feel more comfortable playing electronic versions of wagering games because many more people have been exposed to video games than have been exposed to conventional wagering games. Thus, electronic versions of wagering games are an effective means for attracting new players.
Various electronic gaming systems and their associated apparatus and methods of use are well known in the art. Exemplary patents describing games of chance include U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,820 to Morro et al. (slot machine-puzzle game combination), U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,536 to Davids et al. (electronic card games), U.S. Pat. No. 5,820,460 to Fulton (video poker game), U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,716 to Saffari et al. (“falling symbol” game), U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,970 to Fioretti (“Methods and Apparatus for Playing Bingo Over a Wide Geographic Area”), U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,868 to Goldfarb (“Method of Playing a Game of Chance at Locations Remote from the Game Site”), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,787 to Itkis (“Concurrent Game Network”), the disclosures of each of which patents are incorporated herein by this reference.
Initiating an electronic gaming machine can be done as simply as by inserting a coin or bill or, more comprehensively, for example, by inserting an identification card, such as a “smart card,” which has a programmed microchip or a magnetic strip coded with a player's identification and credit totals. An exemplary gaming machine incorporating “smart card” technology is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,874 to Dickinson et al., the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by this reference. Another exemplary gaming machine incorporating “smart card” technology is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,045 to Biorge et al. (“Biorge”), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by this reference, which uses a writeable identification card, such as a “smart card,” to eliminate the need for a network or direct connection between remote systems and a common controller or point database. The invention disclosed in Biorge can retrieve, record, and update the player's promotional point and credit information using the “smart card.” Finally, it is known in the art to transfer money directly to a gaming machine from a player's personal bank account through an electronic funds transfer, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,902,983 to Crevelt et al., the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by this reference.
It is thought that the introduction of the element of skill, or at least the perception of the element of skill, into a game will increase player interest in the game, thereby encouraging prolonged play and improved player loyalty to the game. Skills can include a wide variety of physical attributes such as strength, coordination, and endurance, as well as a variety of mental attributes, such as strategy, memory, and endurance. Of these skill elements, mental attributes are particularly suited for gaming applications.
However, one of the objectives of gaming regulation is to ensure that the playing of a gaming device is fair to all players, regardless of any special physical or mental skills of the player. To that end, emphasis has been placed on the use of a random number generator to provide a “level playing field” for each player. To a large extent, this has been a very successful approach to gaming. At first, the random number generator feature was implemented by mechanical means, but mechanical random number generation was less than ideal from statistical and probabilistic perspectives. The shortcomings of the mechanical approach were cured with the advent of computer-based random number generation in gaming devices. In these devices, a random game result can be realized through the use of a software program that ensures a consistently random result that is statistically sound. This approach also allowed for an independent verification of the device, which further assisted in achieving the goal of fairness by further limiting opportunities to cheat the device.
One example of a random number generator is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,607 to Kay (“Kay”), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by this reference. Kay describes a random number generator that is both statistically and probabilistically accurate. When evaluating random number generators, emphasis is usually placed on a random number generator producing the correct statistical behavior. A series of statistical tests (such as permutation, chi square, and autocorrelation) can demonstrate whether, when measured over a large sample, a random number generator produces behavior that matches that of truly random numbers. A statistically good random number generator can be used accurately in simulations so long as the importance of any one event in a simulation is roughly the same as the importance of any other event. However, statistical testing does not take into account the wide variation in the significance of possible events. If, for example, the random number generator causes a jackpot to be paid once too often where the random number generator has chosen a particular random number once too frequently, which, statistically speaking, does not significantly change the statistics of the random number generator, this one occurrence may cause a large jackpot to be paid out too often, significantly changing the expected payout of the game.
Thus, it is argued in Kay that, in addition to being statistically accurate, a random number generator used for gaming purposes should also be probabilistically accurate, which means that the random number generator produces each possible outcome exactly the correct number of times. For example, probabilistic analysis can show that a random number generator will produce each possible outcome in any game exactly the same number of times as any other outcome. If the game is poker, for example, exactly the same number of royal flushes will occur as will the number of any other specific hand. The statistically and probabilistically accurate random number generator described in Kay assures that no particular jackpot will be overpaid (or underpaid).
With the development of random number generators that provide the “level playing field” mandated by gaming regulation, the next logical step in the evolution of gaming machines included the addition of a subset of mental skills in games, such as video poker and blackjack. In these games, the player can make choices that are similar to those made in the real games. The games can be implemented to ensure that the minimum payout requirement of a jurisdiction can be achieved for an unskilled player, while a skilled player can achieve payout levels exceeding 100%. These types of games have proven to be so popular with players that they are now the most prevalent game types in American casinos.
Recently, some have attempted to introduce skill elements into a slot machine-type of game. One example is the RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT® slot machine game by Mikohn Gaming Corporation. This game has a bonus feature that allows the player to select answers to questions. The player is provided a series of questions and four possible answers for each question. If he answers a question correctly on the first try, he is awarded a specified bonus amount. If he answers it incorrectly on the first try and correctly on the second try, he is awarded a lower specified bonus amount. This continues until his fourth try, at which point he is awarded the minimum specified bonus amount. He then proceeds to answer each successive question in a similar manner. At the end of the session, his total credits are added up, and, if they exceed a certain minimum level, he can proceed to the next level of questions.
While these types of games have gained wide acceptance in modem society, they are generally not permitted within a regulated gaming environment, particularly within the United States, except under very tightly controlled parameters. The primary reason is that these types of video games, in the past, have not been fair to all players if their primary attribute relies on the very distinctions in physical and/or mental abilities that gaming regulation prohibits in gaming machines.
Another advance in gaming machines involves the implementation of a bonus game in association with a primary or base game. In these types of gaming machines, a primary or base game, such as, for example, a slot machine, is provided with a bonus game. A player playing the primary or base game has opportunities to enter the bonus game upon the occurrence of certain specified events. In many cases, the bonus game is a game involving skill, or at least the appearance of the involvement of skill. Exemplary patents involving gaming machines having bonus game features include U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,606 to Walker et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,429 to Demar et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,897 to Frohm et al., the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by this reference.
Yet another advance in gaming machines relates to the linking of a plurality of gaming machines over a network. U.S. Pat. No. 5,242,163 to Fulton (“Fulton”), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by this reference, discloses the linking of a plurality of gaming machines to a “control station” to at least announce commencement of play of a secondary, group-oriented game to players at distributed gaming machines normally used for play of another, individually oriented game, such as poker. Fulton specifically discloses his invention in the context of providing the opportunity for individual players to participate in a bingo game without leaving their gaming machines. The bingo game may be conducted manually, using a bingo card secured to the gaming machine, or through the gaming machine itself, linked to the control station.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,039,648 to Guinn et al., the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by this reference, discloses the linking of a plurality of gaming machines to a host computer so that gaming machines at distributed locations may be employed in tournament play. U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,122 to Acres et al., the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by this reference, discloses the linking of a plurality of gaming machines to integrate player tracking, data collection, and bonus events over the same network.
Another recent advance in game playing has been in the area of computer-based and Internet-based video games that are played in a simulated story environment. These new types of video games are able to present a compelling and player-motivated gaming experience by departing from traditional linear storytelling and using such novel concepts as behavior-based, interactive story environments, in which the player takes part in creating the story through the actions he or she takes. In other words, these games enable the player to take part in the “evolution” of the game. An example of such a game is THE SIMS, where no predetermined story actually takes place, but players are able to form their own unique storylines through the creation and development of characters and the exertion of some degree of control over their subsequent interactions. Another example is the game CREATURES, an online community where players can “adopt” Internet creatures and interact with them any way the player desires. As in the case of the game THE SIMS, players of CREATURES develop their own unique storylines through the way they interact with these pets, as well as through the pets' responses to these interactions based on the pets' innate (programmed) personalities. These kinds of behavior-based, interactive story environments are especially effective at maintaining player interest because the player feels that he is intimately involved in the course taken by the game. Furthermore, these story environments give players incentive to play longer and more often in order to further develop the creatures and/or pets they have created. The desirability of the personal interaction element, or at least the impression of interactivity, is based on the psychological principles of identity and ego. By involving a player's own identity and ego in the game experience, the player becomes more personally committed to the game, resulting in longer and more frequent playing sessions. Obviously, longer and more frequent play in the gaming context contributes to the profitability of the gaming enterprise.
One example of a game that allows players to create personalized game identities, or avatars, that engage in battles independent of the players is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,643 to Begis (“Begis”), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by this reference. In Begis, players create profiles, which are transmitted to a central host. Two or more avatars based on the player profiles are pitted against one another in a pseudo-game independent of any of the profiles' creators. A winner is determined based on resolution of a plurality of inflection points based on underlying constraints, random factors, and the opposing player profile(s).
Thus, it would be advantageous in the gaming industry to provide a method to equalize the physical and mental skill attributes of players in order to make such evolving story games available for use in a regulated gaming environment. Casinos and other gaming enterprises would derive important competitive benefits from being able to provide their customers a gaming experience that imparts at least the perception of skill-based influence over game outcome while maintaining the “level playing field” mandated by gaming regulation.